Ross Jennings of the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (Case) presented a document at last weekend’s Gauteng youth summit which suggests that young people are still not responsible enough in their sexual encounters.
It is based on Case and Central Statistical Services research from 1993, 1995 and 1996 that shows 73% of the province’s youth have a sexual partner. A quarter (27%) of sexually active young men claims to be using a condom while the overwhelming majority (68%) are not using any contraception at all.
Jennings writes that 92% of young women claimed that their partners did not use any form of contraception, while only one in 20 (5%) said their partners used condoms, and the remaining 3% said that their partners were sterilised. Almost 24% of sexually active young women are not using any form of contraception at all.
Case reports that only 10% of young women aged 16 to 17 have been pregnant compared with 48% aged 18 to 21.
An overwhelming majority (84%) of the young women in Gauteng who had their first baby before the age of 20 had not planned to have this baby.
Of the young women, 92% had to leave school when their first child was born.
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